Tintin in America - Politics

Politics

Although he depicts American Indians as to some extent bloodthirsty, Hergé also demonstrates sympathy for their plight. In the first black-and-white strip Tintin is shown photographing an Indian who is holding a begging bowl (the begging bowl has disappeared in the colour version). Hergé later depicts Natives being driven off their land by armed soldiers so that the US Government may access the oil found there; and whereas Tintin, a white man, was offered thousands of dollars for the oil rights, the Natives are given a mere $25 and half-an-hour to leave.

However, the most overt aspects of American racism, though portrayed highly negatively in context, are nonetheless omitted from the English translation. For example, in the original French version, there is a bank robbery (page 34). A panel shows a bank worker explaining to the police that, after sounding the alarm "on a immédiatement pendu sept nègres, mais le coupable s'est enfui." Translation: "We immediately lynched seven Negroes, but the guilty party fled." The English translation changes this to "we hanged a few fellers right away". The worker's admission of vigilante justice is met with indifference by the police. Two pages later, on page 36, a radio broadcast refers to the lynching of "44 nègres", with no accompanying explanation, implying that such events were typical. Other edits include a frame on page 47 where Tintin hears a wailing baby and thinks it's his kidnapped dog. In the original version, the baby and its mother are drawn as stereotypical negro caricatures. In later translations, the negro family has been replaced by whites.